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United States v. Sykes
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
7 F.3d 1331(1993)
Facts
Linda Sykes (defendant) pled guilty to a federal crime. At the plea hearing, Sykes’s former counsel asked a question about the section of the United States Sentencing Guidelines that would be used to calculate Sykes’s offense level. In response, the court warned that it would not accept Sykes’s plea if the parties had stipulated that a particular section of the guidelines would apply. The judge indicated that he had read an article by someone in Sykes’s counsel’s office who had expressed concerns about the way the sentencing guidelines operated in the court. Sykes was sentenced two months later. After the sentence, Sykes’s counsel moved to withdraw, and Sykes submitted an affidavit that the judge interpreted as a recusal motion. The court denied the motion because it was untimely and unaccompanied by a certificate of counsel and because the court was not biased against Sykes. Sykes appealed, arguing in part that the district-court judge should have recused himself because comments he made during the plea hearing indicated that he was biased against her.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Rovner, J.)
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